Here's the chapter as promised, now time to get going because I honestly can't wait any longer! Be ready because this one's a long one. ( ﾟヮﾟ)
Chapter 29: Colony Lost (pt.2)
Ariel watches from the as the last transport is being loaded with the remaining colonists, including Isaac's family, through so far none of the transports haven't been destroyed thanks to Jim's forces she can't help but be worried for the veteran's family. They had the worst of luck over the years and for all she knows things could go wrong from here on out, from her reports from Jim their attacks are starting to get more intense with the likes of drop pods falling in, but perhaps she just worrying too much. She just doesn't want to see her old friend die like she heard that Maria has, but she needs to focus, her people still need her guidance and she can't give it if she's so worried for them all the time. She walks over to the console and accesses it to contact Jim.
"We're almost done, Commander. Another convoy will be starting out soon." She tells the mercenary commander ahead of time to get his forces ready. However, there's still the problem of her and the remaining defenders at the town, the Hercules transport will be full by the time the last group is in. "And commander, we'll still have people to get out of here after this trip."
"Don't worry doc, I'll send some dropships to pick up the stragglers along with my men in the meantime."
"Thank you, commander." The transmission cuts off and whatever stress that had accumulated throughout the day has finally washed away from her. With a heavy sigh she begins to gather whatever research and equipment she can carry to prepare to leave the only home she knew.
With the recent announcement given by Ariel he's having the main force make their way back towards the town after evacuating the fourth transport to meet up with the reinforcing troops trained back at the base. On the way back he passes the first two bunker emplacements that he established on the choke point near the starport and the entrance to the nearby forest. These two emplacements alone comprise of three bunkers with a few SCVs each to keep them up for a sustain attack. So far they've been instrumental in helping to defend the convoy from the increasing intensity of the zerg attacks. But Matts report on a burrowing zerg has him a bit concerned, it could be the new nydus worms he's been running into as of lately, if so then he'll need to be careful.
The two groups meet up at the bunker site closest to the town which is not as fortified as the rest with only two bunkers, this is to give an opening for his troops to travel into since his scans have detected three of carapaces in the area, he thinks that the last one is down this path, but he didn't have the forces nor to venture in so deep into creep ridden territory until now. A group comprising of ten marines, five firebats, five marauders, and four medics splits off to explore the area while the rest stay back to wait for the transport.
The splinter group quickly takes out a creep tumor near the base of the ramp before traveling deeper into the area in search for their objective. Eventually one of their troops catch sight of the chrysalis right before a pack of zerg emerge around them for another ambush, but the zerglings came face to face with the majority of the leading firebats with the medics keeping them alive long enough for the marines and marauders to take care of the hydras and roaches that were providing support for the zerglings. Only one firebat was last in the attack before they group came in and collect the sample for further research.
The group start making their way back at the same time the transport made its way to the awaiting group above, but as they got near the ramp a large nydus worm erupts from the ground cutting them off. The two groups immediately open fire on the gigantic creature before it could unload its cargo but it immediately began to release a large number zerglings unto the splinter group as well as the bunkers. The splinter group try to fight off the rapidly encroaching zerglings but their numbers allowed them to completely surround the troops despite their firepower and begin to tear away at the group. The bunkers held strong as the repairs of the SCVs along with the fire support from the main group kept the position from being overrun. Soon hydralisks emerge from the worm's maw and began to shoot at the now weakened splinter group causing more damage than the remaining medics can heal causing their numbers to quickly dwindle. Eventually the firepower of the main group was able to damage the creature as it shakes around from the injuries before collapsing dead. By the time they took care of the remaining zerg forces there was no trace of the splinter group left showing that the zerg have finished them off.
With no time to grieve for the dead Raynor had his soldiers catch up to the transport which passed them not too long ago. The bunker line covering the forest entrance is quickly laid under siege as another worm emerged near the front of it, but the combined firepower of the bunkers along with the newly arrived troopers was able to push back this attack and kill the nydus worm before it could spew out enough zerg forces to break through the line.
As they go make it down the second bend a few zerg pods land around the transport to try to surround the lightly armed transport, but the soldiers escorting it gunned the emerging zerglings and hydralisks before they could do any damage to the civilians. The convoy continues to move on when the last bunker line before the starport began to be attack by a large zerg attack force being sustained by a nearby nydus worm. Thanks to the SCVs stationed there the bunkers held strong under the pressure of the assault as Raynor pulls a large portion of his troops off to assist in the defense. Though the worm itself is too far to be targeted by any of his forces he intends on only holding them off for as long as it takes until the civilians are completely evacuated. The transport makes it safely up the ramp and begun to unload its passengers with the other group standing guard, but no zerg were ever able to break through the immense fire of the bunker line.
As the civilian transport enters the ship as its last passenger the hercules began to lift itself off the ground as its engines begun to light up.
"Alright everyone, I've already got dropships on their way to pick you and the remaining colonists up, just hang in there." He assures his men as they continue to hold their position at the starport, but the zerg attacks are getting even more intense with an increase of mutas and drop pods, it's as if they're trying to make a last ditch effort to kill whoever remains on the planet.
He hopes that the other dropships will make it in time to save Ariel and the rest of her people.
Ares is starting to become anxious; the sensation of dread is starting to grow as he and his brothers continue to sense the ever increasing number of zerg on the planet to the point where blocking it out isn't helping. So far, no opportunity to escape this invasion has presented itself which added to the fear that even the likes of Janusar are feeling as they continue to stand outside awaiting for it. What also worries him is Isabel, he can't sense her anymore and he isn't sure if she's alive or not, for now he's just has to hope that she's safe while focusing on getting out of here.
"Above us." Janusar's Raspy voice calls out causing him and his brother to look up, in their sights are two ships similar to the dropship used to arrive on Agria lowering down towards the town. One of them looks like it's going to land near them, this is the exact thing they need, and they all know it. "I'll take control of the pilot and make them land, then we will bord it. We will need to be fast about this am I clear?" He and Cronos give a synchronized nod before they all look back to the shuttle.
To their convenience the dropship immediately lowers and lands on the ground, its cargo hatch opens upon landing making things simpler for them. Before they could act however, they see a few people in white coats exiting out of the surrounding buildings, one of them stays at the base upon reaching it, she seems to have tied up brown hair and a white lab coat like the others. The terran female seems to be the leader judging from her disposition to the others, but she doesn't concern them, his brothers intend on escaping and they don't care for what happens to those they come across which has him fear for these people.
He watches as his protoss-equivalent reaches out with one arm and takes control of the pilots mind as effortlessly as he did with the last one.
"Everyone, move!" With one synchronous motion he was swept up by Cronos and they all charge towards the grounded ship. He can see the sudden shock on the woman's face as she notices them and immediately runs up the ramp to escape them. But with the pilot fully under Janusar's control they have nowhere to go.
Terrified yells emit from the people as the hybrids enter but he can feel that his brothers are barely even acknowledging them simply because they have far more pressing matters to worry about. This resulted in some people almost getting struck by Cronos' swinging tendrils simply because he didn't notice them. Each brother took their places as Janusar goes through the door to the cockpit while Cronos settles down on the other end of the cargo bay right across from the still terrified people which he decided to finally take notice of by just staring at them while holding Ares in a protective manner.
Ares just looks at the people wishing that he could calm them down but alas he doesn't know how to interact with other people properly. He sees one of them take a quick glance over outside only for his face and mind to twist into that of genuine fear. He looks over and sees the distressing sight of a large pack of zerglings charging from the street with some of their members already ahead and attacking the auto sentries. Their claws and teeth tear through the metal of the machines as they shoot away, but their constant fire was not enough to stifle the creatures as they were torn into scrap metal, those that remain quickly took notice of the survivors and started to charge towards them.
His brother fastens his embrace before growling and positioning his tendrils to be ready to strike at any creature that comes close to them. They feel a jolt of momentum as the ship begins to lift off to avoid the onslaught on the ground, but the ship was only a few meters above the ground when the closest member of the pack leaps up into the air, barely landing on the edge of the open hatch. Its forelimbs and sickle limbs on its back dig into the metal preventing it from falling back down to its brethren. A savage roar escaped from its maw displaying its immense need to kill them all.
The ramp begins to raise up causing the creature to franticly move to get itself up into the ship, but it remains unsuccessful as it's continues to be raised. When the ramp is near closing it is at an angle that help the zergling lift itself up causing it to narrowly avoid being cut in two by the closing hatched by falling harshly to the floor. It recovers from the impact and takes an aggressive stance as it briefly scans the area. It's yellow eyes immediately lock on to the civilians upon seeing them and charges towards them with the intent to kill. Ares' fear skyrockets as the group panics while trying to avoid the monster, but the lack of space prevents any chance to escape. It leaps towards the nearest human unfortunate enough to be its first victim, but one of Cronos' tendrils stabs right through the body denying it its kill.
Despite being impaled by a giant blade it continues to lash out at the human in a primal rage but it was lifted away from the people and towards the front of him from a safe distance away. The zergling turns its attention towards the hybrid and bites in the air in a futile attempt to harm him. His brother just growls at the creature before cutting it in half with a swift strike from a second tendril. After the front half of the corpse falls to the ground he flings it back towards the door along with the other half still skewered on his tendril.
The bay was suddenly filled with only the sounds of heavy breathing of the civilians and the hum of the engines roaring outside, it seems peaceful enough to let the others to calm recover from the experience. But suddenly, as if to disrupt this recovery, the ship rocks violently jostling everyone inside with unpredictable jolts in all directions. Fear quickly fills the space again as he can also feel a sense of worry from Cronos as he was held tighter in his embrace. All they can do now is sit by and let Janusar guide them to safety.
Janusar winces as he recovers from the damage caused to the ship, he couldn't see what hit them, all he could derive from its silhouette is that it was small and fast yet somehow was able to cause great damage to the craft after colliding with it. All he could do is to keep flying and avoid anymore of these creatures the best that he could, he doubts that it can survive another impact from those things, in fact he's surprised that it is still functioning at all after that.
A loud sound accompanied by a red light on the control pad caught his attention and what he catches among the displays is a large green circle and within it is a yellow dot he quickly figures is to represent them, behind it are three red dots quickly approaching it, no doubt more of the creatures chasing them. He gazed around the console for anything he could use to escape when he quickly found what he was looking for: a valve released. He had the pilot still under his control press the button and he felt his body lurch back as the ship's speed suddenly increased causing it to quickly break through the clouds and into the planet's upper atmosphere. He glances towards the radar and sees that thee red dots are gone for now, but one problem was replaced with another as the form of some flying creature with bat wings and a long tail flies past the cockpit, soon the ship rumbles as it fires some sort of projectile at them.
Soon more of its kind started to fly into the scene along with some sort of large tentacled flyer, but not towards him, but to a different target. He looks to his left to where the others are flying and see that a few other dropships are flying in the same direction as them. Knowing that staying isolated will only make them a more enticing target he directs the ship towards the group as fast as possible to have their numbers be their shield. Once he meets up the he stabilizes the ship and follows the course of the others when a screen lights up green in front of him which he promptly presses.
"About time you met up Kilo-five! What took you so long?" A female voice emits from the device. He needs to come up with an answer quickly to avoid suspicion.
"Sorry ma'am, some zerg took me by surprise." He speaks through the pilot in a semi-monotone voice which he hopes they wouldn't catch.
"Well whatever, right now we need to catch up with that shuttle." He looks ahead and sees the massive transport well ahead of the group and the pursuing flyers.
From his right he catches the movement of a large object moving into his view.
"There's the Hyperion! Everyone keep formation, maintain heading, and get ready to use your boost in 3..." His eyes widened upon hearing these words, he just used it to escaped the flyers just earlier.
He looks down to the valve controls to check it's condition.
'…64% Ready…'
"2…" He needs to tell him now, but how does he word it?
"1! Now!" The entire group but he sped through space quickly leaving him behind.
"Kilo-five what the hell are you doing!? Ignite your boosters you've got scourge on your ass!" The hybrid looks down to the radar again and sees at least five red dots approaching him.
"I can't, I've used it to escape the flyers earlier."
"Damnit! Captain I need covering fire for Kilo-five 'til she can get her boost up!"
Seconds later he started seeing numerous orange lights launch from to large cruiser and approaching his direction rapidly, within moments three of the large projectiles fly over the ship causing him to reflectively dip down from how close they came. He looks down to the console again to see that there's only one dot on the radar, then he looks over to the status bar.
'…87% Ready…'
He needs to keep ahead of the zerg until it's ready, he veers left and right to avoid the insect-like projectiles that were shot by the bat-like and larger squid-like flyers. He feels the ship rumble again as he wasn't able to avoid all the projectiles causing an alarm to blare out in the cockpit telling him that the ship is in critical condition. He looks down to the console and sees that multiple systems are in the red zone and another rumble is only making things worse. If it isn't for the barrage of fire given by the Hyperion taking out the majority of the flyers they would be dead already. His eyes go to the valve control again in silent fear.
'…100% Ready...' He immediately has the pilot push the green button causing his body to lurch back again and the image of the ship to get bigger as the rapidly approach it. He got close enough to see the other ships docking into the ship's hanger, that's where he's also going.
By the time the boost wore off he was close enough to the ship for its field of fire to cover him to safely fly into the ship's interior. With the aid of the pilot's memory he navigates the dropship into the ship's hanger but the damage sustained is making it difficult to make the trip smooth. He was able to slow himself down just enough to safely, if roughly, land into the available space in the hanger. But he misjudges how fast he's really going and he begins to slide through the hanger smashing away crates and nearly hitting crewman diving out of the way until its side crashes into a wall.
The landing left him slightly jarred for a few seconds before he looks over to the hanger door to evaluate the situation outside. He watches as hundreds of specks flying outside the ship continue to converge on the lone ship, but he noticed the whole sight slowly becoming green and distorted causing him to squint at the strange sight. The sight became heavily distorted before the whole hanger was illuminated in a bright green flash making him blink at the same moment. Once he opens them again a minute later he sees that the chaos happening outside was now replaced with the dotted and calm void of space.
A sense of relief went through his mind as now they are safe from one threat, but caution quickly replaced it once he remembers of the new one.
Running out of the dropship's ramp Niva, designated as Kilo-one and commander of Kilo squad, looks over to the crashed dropship currently resting on it's side with small plums of fire emanating from various spots of the hull. She wipes away her sweaty short black hair as she looks in fear for her fellow pilot, the damage looks bad, an engine was nearly shot to hell and various hull sections were heavily damaged by zerg flyers and a large gash near the hull no doubt made by a scourge impacting it. Despite the small size of the bat-like bastards their acids can wreak havoc on even a cruiser's hull.
But what she's really concerned about is the pilot inside, the crash looked bad from her viewport, it nearly killed the crewman in its way if it wasn't for them jumping out of the way. She sees various repair and fire suppression teams coming in to immediately tend to the ship and whoever occupants are inside. She however stopped a dozen meters away from the repair teams to give them some space to work, but she hears the loud creaking of the hanger bay opening up which catches the attention of the surrounding crew and her.
"Hang in there sis." Niva immediately rushes towards the area hoping to find both her sister and the people she was meant to evacuate alive and okay.
She was able to reach the ramp by the time it hit the ground and without hesitation she was going to run up when a large silhouette caused her to stop in her tracks halfway up. When her eyes gained a good view of the being standing before her she immediately gasps before running in the other direction in a full sprint, almost tripping due to such a sudden change of direction.
"Everyone run!" She yells out as causing all her fellow crew members to scatter in all directions upon them seeing the monster as well. She could hear a deep growl and heavy footsteps behind her implying that the creature is chasing her but she doesn't look back while her legs give her their all.
To her immense relief she started to see the numerous marines, marauders, medics, and firebats coming out from the dropships and the surrounding area to intercept monster. When she expected the shooting to start instead she heard someone talk.
"Hold your fire, it's got a hostage!" A marine yelled. Once she was a good distance away she stopped to look back at the situation, beyond the line of troops that already formed and ready to fire on the creature stands both the large monster itself and a kid barely in his late teens.
Now that she has a better look at the creature she sees that it looks like some large blue zerg creature with numerous blade tipped tendrils all raised and posed to strike. Its head looks like it came straight out of hell with large horns arching towards each other, two bright blue eyes that give off a sinister glare, and a tooth filled mouth flanked by two mandibles.
"Commander, we have a situation in hanger thirteen, some sort of zerg creature has boarded the ship and it has a hostage, we currently have it pin at the ship it came in on!" She hears the commander of the troops contact Raynor through his comms unit while the rest of the soldiers kept their rifles trained on the creature.
Now with this terrifying revelation she starts to fear for her sister's safety.
Isaac is confused, why is there a commotion outside? He heard a lot of heavy footsteps of marines rushing to a location within the hanger right outside the open ramp of the transport, the marines that came with them hang around the ramp keeping guard of the ship, and they seem to be cautious at something. She looks down to Isabel who looks frightened from the commotion going on beyond the ship's hull and the worried murmurs of the colonist around them. He could feel that something wasn't right, it could be his curiosity, or his parental instinct for wanting to figure out what is causing them such distress and neutralize it. Either way a strong urge to look out to what is happening is being considered in his mind.
"Isabel, I'm going to check out what's going on, stay here with May until I return." Isaac tells his daughter while holding her shoulders.
"Wait but-" She was going to retort when he cuts her off.
"It's going to be for a little bit, I'm not gonna get off the ship." Her red eyes looked at him for a few seconds before she hesitantly nods and gets herself close to May who holds her firmly.
He goes on the exit of the ship by weaving through the crowds of frightened people apologizing and requesting them to move. Upon reaching the exit he first comes upon the marines guarding the ramp and looking intensely at something to their right. He traces their gaze to a crashed ship deeper into the hanger, but what is right next to it shocks him: it is a large group of soldiers all tightly surrounding the two creatures he instantly recognizes as Cronos and Janusar. Though he could barely see it there's also Ares being held behind his two brothers as they act as living shields for the frightened boy.
He's surprised that the soldiers hadn't opened fire at the creatures yet, but perhaps they think they're holding Ares hostage rather than protecting him. But he knows that once they do attack them things are going to get ugly, he's seen them tear apart larger Zerg creatures almost effortlessly and Cronos was able to survive their onslaught alone for hours, those soldiers will suffer heavy casualties before they could make adequate damage to them. It can be even worse if they harm or even kill the kid.
He and his family are the only ones who've had prior experience with the creatures and they know they are not highly aggressive, at least not when under threat, he could be the only one who can disarm the situation before it gets violent. He owes them that much at least.
He makes a mad dash in their direction completely bypassing the guards before they could react.
"Hey wait stop!" One of the marines calls out but he ignores them as he runs towards the conflict, jumping over crates and dodging the non-combat crew members that are still vacating the area.
Once he reaches the trooper line he begins to bob and weave through the various power armor of the soldiers like a lizard through a bush catching every soldier he came across off guard before passing them as easily as he did the last. Eventually he makes it pass the line and head straight towards the hybrid until he makes it halfway in the space between the opposing parties and turns around.
"Everyone wait, hold your fire!" He raises his arms as he tries to convince the cautious troopers to set their weapons down.
"Who the hell are you?" One of the marines, probably the commander of this group, asks him while aiming at him.
"I am Isaac Kalalski and I and my family were just simple farmers on Agria before the invasion. I've come here to tell you all to not shoot them."
"And why shouldn't we? Just look at them."
"I know they don't look like it but they are not hostile as long as you don't shoot them, my family and I have encountered them before." Despite his arguments the soldiers refuse to put down their weapons.
He hears a door open from behind the firing line and begins to see soldiers begin to part away to someone making their way through the group with heavy footsteps, it has to be someone important for them to all move aside so easily. The troops continue to part way for the individual until they finally arrive to the front of the group revealing two individuals, one is a man towering above the rest in purplish power armor holding a gauss rifle and having his visor down, the other is a man without any armor but is well built and has black hair and beard. On his right hip is a leather holster that is holding a revolver so at least he isn't unarmed.
"I'm Jim Raynor and I'm the commander of this ship. Mind telling me who you are?" The man introduces himself with a serious tone that shows his authority. But a ping of familiarity runs through his mind upon hearing the name, but that's not important right now.
"Isaac Kalaski sir. Father, husband, and farmer formerly of the Agria colony." He keeps his voice as calm as possible as he continues. "I want you to have your troops to stand down, Cronos, Janusar, and Ares are not hostile as long as you don't engage them."
"So they have names then?"
"They do, and they are not with the zerg despite their appearance, they've actually helped in the evacuation. If it wasn't for them me and my family wouldn't have made it out alive."
"It's true." He looks over behind the hybrids and sees that it's Ariel and a few other scientists exiting the ship and carrying an unconscious woman who he believes is the dropship's pilot. "He told me about them beforehand. They might have hijacked the ship and made a less than stellar landing, but they wanted to get off the planet as badly as we did and paid us little mind in the process." He looks back to the commander and watches as he ponders his next actions for a moment before responding.
"Well if they're not zerg then what are they? I need to know what I'm letting on my ship." Isaac looks back to the group where they all are staring at him with as much anticipation as all the soldiers aiming at them. He then looks at Janusar who nods giving him the all clear to give them this information before turning back.
"They're all Protoss and Zerg hybrid sir, including Ares." He sees the eyes of the commander widen at this statement.
"Hybrids? But that's impossible." Isaac had heard of the prospect of Zerg assimilating the Protoss species as nonexistent for a variety of theories which is why he isn't surprised to hear this. Ariel said the same thing when he first told her.
"I know it sounds crazy, but it's the truth, you can listen to them yourself if you want." Once again Jim stares at the creatures intently as he starts coming to a conclusion. Each second got him more nervous, the outcome of this standoff solely depends on the man's decision.
"Believe me sir, you do not want to pick a fight with them, I've seen what they did to the Zerg." It felt like an eternity before Jim finally came to a decision.
"Have them stand down first, then I'll settle my boys down." The option to not fight brought him relief but the decision now comes down to Janusar.
He once again looks back at the group with worried eyes, he knows that the protoss-like hybrid is not so trusting with others, but he prays that he can comply with the demand. He can notice the other two looking at him for an answer just a eagerly as him, appearing to have a silent discussion among themselves. After some deliberation on their end he can see the body posture of both Cronos and Janusar begin to loosen to a more non threatening stance with the former laying his tendrils to the floor and the latter letting his limbs go limp.
"Alright then, everyone stand down." Jim stays true to his word and orders all of the soldiers which they all hesitantly comply with by lowering all of their weapons finally bringing relief to the man. But the commander isn't done yet as he begins to walk over a few feet before stopping. "Now that we are on better terms, would you mind answering a few questions?" Isaac stood aside to give the two their own time together.
10 Minutes later
Jim has been asking these "hybrids", specifically to the one named Janusar, various questions as to get anything useful out of them. So far he's been answering to each question enough to satisfy the commander, if begrudgingly. But one answer concerning their origins does concern him, apparently the Confederacy have been working on some sort of hybrid project and went to great lengths to cover it up, but he can't be sure if Janusar is lying or not, he'll have to take his word for now. With everything else he seems fine with like how the protoss looking creature being the leader and not Ares, to be honest the latter didn't look like he would fit the bill anyway, ironic since Jim was also told that the boy was supposed to be the end goal for the project they belong to. For now it's enough to at least harbor these beings, if they wanted to tear him apart they would've done so already.
"Alright then, you all seem to be good enough, where do you like to be on the ship?" He asks Janusar.
"Somewhere isolated preferably." He responds in a still unnerving raspy voice.
"Would a spare storage room be comfortable enough?"
"Indeed." With the hybrid sounding satisfied enough he turns back to his friend Tychus who he can tell that he is still suspicious of the creatures with his more stiffed up stance.
"Tychus, I want you to take some of our guys and bring them to storage unit 3c, you're free to shoot them if they do anything suspicious."
"Are you sure about this Jimmy? Letting these...freaks on board?" Tychus asks.
"If they wanted to start trouble they would've done so the moment they landed, plus they ain't so keen on killing right now either. They might help a lot further down the line if what Isaac said is true."
"Okay then old buddy, I trust you on this."
"Just do it." As ordered Tychus urges the hybrid group to follow which they do while he picks three marines, two marauders, and two medics to follow them out.
As the combined group are going to make their way out of the hanger he sees Isaac and Ares looking at each other, with the latter giving a light smile at him.
"Now we're even." He hears the man say in a calm and caring voice before they went their separate ways. This gives him an idea.
"Hey Isaac." The grizzled man looks over him with a confused look.
"Oh, yes sir?" Isaac responds in a formal manner while stiffing up his body slightly like a soldier.
"At ease man, you can just call me Jim." He gives a small wave to the man which causes him to ease up in both body and mind. "You seem to have a friendly connection with the kid."
"Oh, well let's just say he has a good heart."
"That's good to know, what about the other two though? I need some insider information."
"They aren't as kind as Ares, but as I said before, they don't seem to be too aggressive unless provoked. As long as no one is dumb enough to attack them we should be fine."
"Well, I have something that I want you to do."
"Dad!"
"Isaac!" Two familiar voices sound off to the man causing them to look over and what Rayner sees is a woman with scarlet red hair accompanied by a shorter blonde girl running towards Isaac.
"May, Isabel." Isaac responds with a hint of joy in his voice.
"Dad what happened? You just ran off and you were gone for a while so we checked and saw Ares and his brothers surrounded and we were really worried for you." The blonde girl talked in a quick and panicked tone before her father hushed her.
"It's alright Isabel, everything's fine now." He turns to Jim. "Jim, this is my daughter Isabel and my wife May." He gestures to the two accordingly making them easy for him to identify. "Everyone, this is Jim Raynor."
"Hello." They both greeted.
"Good to meet you two, I was just talking to Issac about the relation you have with the hybrids. I'm thinking of something and any additional information can help."
"Like what?" The family seems to be worried by this statement, especially Isaac who gives him a fairly concerned look when he asked.
"Well I need to know that the hybrid won't go AWOL on us, and with everything that happened today you seem to have the best relationship with them, at least enough for you to stand up in front of a couple dozen guns for them. If it's okay I want you to look over them."
"What?" He gasps, taken back by the commander's request before gathering his thoughts again with a deep breath. "Look, I understand what you're asking of me, but the thing is they've only tolerated us during our time together, I don't think they'd appreciate us looking into their business."
"It's alright Isaac, I won't force you if you don't want to, I ain't like Mengsk. I'll just post a couple of guards near their location and have them report to me instead. You three just recover with your people."
"Thank you, Jim, we appreciate everything you've done for us." May responds, giving a small bow to him.
"All in a day's work ma'am." The family turns away and walks back to the transport they came in while he turns back to see numerous engineers and safety workers putting out the last of the fires and beginning to start repairs on the ship. To his left he sees additional workers caring for the pilot with someone in pilot suit looking over her with them.
Today has been quite the eventful day.
Ture on that, this is actually the longest chapter I've ever typed up (rivaling that of chapter 7), and it was while I was looking after our new puppy we've adopted, he was quite the troublemaker.
Now let's get to the trivia:
"El Al airlines of Israel is considered one of the most secure airlines in the world.
How secure are they? Well, for starters, they actually equip each one of their planes with anti-missile defense systems, in case of a mid-air attack. That's in addition to a myriad of other security precautions: At passport control, all passengers have their information cross-referenced against intelligence databases from the FBI, Canadian Central Intelligence...and a host of other services...patrolled by hundreds of plain-clothes officers, who are searching for suspicious characters...every flight contains at least two armed air marshals, ready to take out any would-be assailants before they have a chance to stand up." (Factinate . com)
Well that's all for today I'm afraid, this is going a bit too long.
Now I hope you all have a great day or night wherever you may be and stay safe!
"Hey guys I'm baaaaaack!"😆
Wait why is there a hydralisk in the hou-😨